6 Jan y 1807

Facienda

Outline

Appeal & Jury

For saving unnecessary delay, vexation and expence by journeys and demurrage[?] of witnesses; power to the Judges of the regularly competent forum (the defendant's) to transmitt the cause with consent of parties to any other forum being in those respects the most convenient: any party not consenting, and thereby preventing the transmission, to be chargeable with the difference in point of expense.

To either party dissatisfied with the judgment given in the verdict of a first Jury, power to appeals for a new Trial either to the Judge of the primary Court, or (as in case of misdirection to the Jury or other misbehaviour imputed to that Court) to the Metropolitan Court of Appeal at Edinburgh: transmitting for that purpose the Minutes of the Trial from the Court below to the Court above.

Power thereupon to the Metropolitan Court of Appeal either to give judgment upon the said /these/ minutes, or to order a new Trial either at Edinburgh before itself or in any other more convenient Provincial Court from which the Appeal was made.

To prevent Appeals to Edinburgh by an opulent party for the mere purpose of delivering or disabling an indigent adversary from the prosecution of his demand or defence, power to the Court below to exact of the Appellant, consideration had of their respective pecuniary means, a competent sum to be applied, under the direction of the Court, to the defraying of the Respondents's share of the expence.

Power to the Metropolitan Courts of Appeal to order, on reasonable cause other /ulterior/ new Trials without any express translation as to number, but in each instance on condition that the applicant deposit as above, a sum sufficient for the opposite party share of the expense, and being security for the eventual payment of a sum predeterminable by the Court, applicable in the name of satisfaction for the vexation and expence of such impending trial, in the event of a Verdict unfavourable to the applicant.